Wednesday, August 01, 2012

CHONG WEI IN QUARTERS

Lee Chong Wei qualified for the last eight of the mens singles competition with a devastating display to send Simon Santoso packing with a 21-12, 21-8 win.

He will take on Kashypa Parupalli of India in the last eight. Kashyap had defeated Sri Lanka's Niluka Karuraratne 21-14, 15-21, 21-9 earlier.

The duo have met twice, with Chong Wei winning both the matches at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in new Delhi and the 2011 Denmark Open, both in straight games.

"Though I may have beaten him before, its a totally different situation as he had defeated Nguen (Tien Minh) at the group stage and looks fairly confident," said Chong Wei.

"No opponents ought to be treated lightly and I expect him to give it his best shot as he has nothing to lose.

"I thoroughly enjoyed myself on court as everything worked well and it was also an easier then expected win.

"The three setter in the group match acutually worked ou well as it gave me the much needed practice to work on certain shots. Now its another hurdle that I have to cross and with the prayers of all Malaysians I am optimistic of making the last four."

Chong Wei took an early lead at 5-1 only for Simon to reduce the deficit to just one point. However some deft touches allowed Chong Wei to move ahead to 8-5 before he misjudged a baseline shot to allow Simon to move another point up.

A neat drop shot gave the Malaysian a 11-7 lead at the break.

Chong Wei then raced to a 17-10 lead with some neat attacking play, but it was his net play that kept letting him down.

And a neat deceptive drop shot ensured Chong wei a 21-12 lead, and he took the first set 21-12 in just 17 minutes.

The second set started similar to the first as Chong Wei raced to a 7-2 lead before commiting another bad baseline judgement and Simon collected two points to reduce the deficit to 7-4.

There was no looking abck as Chong Wei reeled off eight consecutive points to lead 18-6 and allowed Simon only another 2 points before sealing off a 21-8 win, also in 17 minutes.